Google Pay Comes Out With Ways To Avoid UPI Frauds

At a time when frauds via United Payments Interface (UPI) have become a commonplace and users money is being stolen from their bank accounts using UPI, Google Pay that holds a dominant position in the space has released an advisory that details ways in which users can avoid falling prey to such UPI scams.

In the notification, the payments company has asked users to keep their UPI PIN confidential, use payment app for contacting customer care and download just trusted mobile apps.

The latest communication from the payments firm forms part of a bigger user education drive that Google announced in respect of India earlier during the year in association with the Data Security Council of India and numerous ecosystem partners, including fintech firms and banks. It will carry on with investment in reaching out over the near term, said Google Pay.

"As UPI has grown in India, it has brought into the fold many users who are new to digital payments. The key to the continued success of the rails is user education, to ensure that users transact digitally in a way that's aware and secure," Ambarish Kenghe, Director - Product Management, Google Pay is cited as saying in a leading publication.

In July this year, the UPI based payments interface said it would send notifications and SMSes informing users of the direction of money flow highlighting the fact that customers upon approving a UPI collect request are transferring funds from their bank accounts.

On talking about the milestones attained by UPI, its developer NPCI said UPI in October hit a landmark one billion transactions. And in another success, UPI on a recent basis crossed user base of 100 million.

As such there is no official data pertaining to frauds on UPI interface but reports of fraud have come from all across the country in which users have lost their money after being asked their PIN by fraudsters.

Several entities including the RBI, ICICI Bank, CitiBank, HDFC Bank, Phone Pe and Paytm have cautioned users on how to avoid such scams. Meanwhile, NPCI has even released warnings in regional languages.

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